The present disclosure relates to data processing, and more particularly to portals.
Generally, a portal refers to a single entry point through which a user can access information, applications, and services needed to perform one or more tasks. Computer programs that generate portals, or simply portal software, typically reside on a server of a network such as, for example, the Internet. Portal software is usually accessed from a client computer.
A portal can include, for example, content such as data, applications and transactional systems, and Web content and services. The data can be structured or unstructured. The portal content is generally included in the portal by subscription. That is, the user subscribes to the content that the user wants to be included in the portal. Portal software, thus, can provide different portal content to different users. Furthermore, portal software can provide the same portal content to a particular user, regardless of where in the network the user accesses the portal software. The user will, thus, have the same portal content even when the user launches the portal from different client computers.
Portal content can be distributed. That is, portal content can be located on different points of the network. A portal can, for example, provide access to a first application and a second application even when the first and second applications are located on different servers. A portal, can also, for example, provide access to a first set of data and a second set of data even when the first and second sets of data are stored at different locations in the network.
Access is typically page-oriented. A user operating a client computer, for example, can use a browser to access the portal. In this case, the client and the server can communicate by using hypertext transfer protocol (“HTTP”).
Access can be stateless. That is, the portal software and the portal content can have no access to information that describes interactions of a previous user session. Alternatively, access can be stateful, which can be implemented, for example, by rewriting URLs, using sessions cookies, or using unique session identifications. In general, a particular set of communications between a server and a client will be referred to in this specification as a user session. The set can be defined in different ways. A user session, for example, can be identified based on when a browser being used is opened and closed. A user session can also be identified by the network application itself. For example, a network application can include a login and logout function that starts and terminates, respectively, a user session.